Catty Boys, Palisades Girls Win Titles Track

May 11, 1985|by MARK WILL-WEBER, The Morning Call

If Teddy Roosevelt would have had to ride up San Juan Hill as often as the Catasauqua boys track and field members have had to climb the victory stand at the Colonial League meet, then he'd have needed fresh horses on a regular basis.

The Rough Riders still had the horses last night at Northern Lehigh, as Catty charged to its fifth straight team title with 137 points. But serving notice for next year was Palisades with 87 points in the runnerup position, while Nazareth ran third in the nine-team field with 80 points.

Palisades displayed good overall balance to capture the distaff crown, as the Lady Pirates won their third straight team title with 145 points. Southern Lehigh, stoked by some very visable individual stars, was second with 111, while Saucon Valley finished third with 73 points.

Catasauqua's Bruce Linton (what would a big Rough Rider track and field win be without a Linton involved?) paced the winning effort with four firsts. Linton won the 110-meter hurdles (14.9), the long jump (21-9), the triple jump (44-11 1/2 ), and also ran an eye-opening leg on the Roughies' winning 400- meter relay quartet.

But sparkling individual performances by non-Rough Riders drew as much attention as the Catty team win, particularly twin-killings from long-striding Southern Lehigh distance star Mike Krafczyk (1600, 3200) and a young freshman out of Palisades who proved he was for real and proved it fast.

Yes, British rock band "The Clash" once did a number titled "Power By Funk" and that's exactly what Palisades had in the sprints - frosh dash sensation John Funk, that is. All young Funk did was nip Catty's Haughton in the 100 with a 10.8 time (he also did 10.8 in the trial heat, a meet record) and then win the 200 in 22.5, after having run a meet record 22.1 in the trial heat. Haughton entered the meet as defending champion in both events, and turned in great times himself in pushing the Pirate freshman.

Palisades head coach Ed Ruiz could hardly contain his enthusiasm for Funk's performance: "John is just a freshman, and I'm happy that we'll have him for four years. I thought he'd break 11 (in the 100) tonight on the all- weather surface, but he can still get better. He has great form . . . "

Krafczyk won the 1600 (4:36.3) almost as easy as he could, knowing he had to come back in the 3200. He turned on the after-burners in the eight-lap event, at least enough to set a meet mark of 9:37.6, but was still able to help some of his opponents up when they collapsed on the infield after finishing. Krafczyk also anchored Southern Lehigh's winning 1600 meter relay team to first, which included Dave Busser, Brian Bicking, and Matt McGinley.

Nazareth's Chris Hunt also was a double-winner, as the Blue Eagle soared to first in the high jump with 6-6 3/4 and, perhaps something of a surprise, set a meet record in the discus with 146-6.

Other winners for the boys included Palisades' Rick Snyder in the 400 (52.1); Wilson senior Paul Kocher 800 (1:57.7), who also anchored the Warrior 3200-meter team to first; Saucon Valley's Dave Oren in the 300 intermediate hurdles with a personal best of 40.7; and Nazareth's Tadgh Nealon, first in the pole vault with 13-6.

The Palisades girls turned in a balanced attack to take their title. Things started right early for the Pirates, when they racked up 28 points in the high jump alone by taking the first four places. Freshman Leslie Lippincott led that clearance attack with 5-3, followed by teammates Karen Loubris, Lea White, and Rachael Torerson.

But the Purple Gang did well elsewhere, with senior sprinter Pia Kahlefeld going under a minute to win the 400, and also finishing second in the 100. Ann Balik set a record in the discus with 114-11, and she also had seconds in the javelin and shot. Beth Edgar, senior distance runner, ran her best 3200 time ever to take second in the 3200 (12:03), gathering an important eight points.

Saucon Valley senior sprint star Diane Cawley turned in top performances in the 100 (12.3) and the 200 (26.0, ties meet record), and swift sophomore Sue Kozelnicky winged to virtually uncontested twin-wins in the 1600 (5:128) and 3200 (11:22.8) in both distance events.

Wilson's Heather Korhammer turned in her usual gold-medal efforts in the field, winning both the havelin and the shot put. Korhammer chucked the spear for a meet record 140-8, and put the shot 35-4 1/2 . She also placed third in the discus.